Watch & Listen

The Coathangers

If you’re familiar with The Coathangers then you probably know the Atlanta group’s premise. The story goes that four young women decided to start a band for the sole purpose of being able to hang out and play parties. They weren’t going to let the fact that none of them knew how to play any instruments get in the way of their having a good time. The backstory certainly added to the charm of early songs like “Nestle In My Boobies” and “Stop Stomp Stompin’”--songs that resided somewhere between no-wave’s caustic stabs of dissonance and garage rock’s primal minimalism. In the seven years since their formation, The Coathangers have released a slew of records and toured across North America and Europe countless times. The persistence of such a casual endeavor is a testament to the infectious quality of their songs and the electric nature of their unruly live show.
Suck My Shirt is the The Coathangers’ fourth full-length. The title refers to an incident involving the salvaging of spilled tequila during the recording session for the album. While the title implies that little has changed with regards to the band’s celebratory mission statement, even just a cursory listen of their latest album demonstrates that there have indeed been changes in The Coathangers’ camp. First off, the quartet was reduced to a trio for the latest record, with keyboardist Bebe Coathanger (Candice Jones) stepping down from her duties. But the absence of keyboards isn’t nearly as noticeable of a difference as the band’s refined songwriting approach. Refinement is an attribute we expect to see in any group that has a career spanning more than a couple of years, but the extent to which The Coathangers have honed their trade with each successive album dwarfs most bands’ maturation. This isn’t to say that The Coathangers have polished their sound; the group once again worked with Ed Rawls and Justin McNeight at The Living Room to attain the same production values of their Larceny & Old Lace album and their recent slew of split 7”s. Rather, the refinement can be heard in the quality of the songs themselves. While the band retains the alluring spontaneity and happy accidents of their early releases, the trio’s current work sounds far more deliberate and locked-in than anything they’ve done in the past.
“It’s a balance between overthinking and just going for it,” guitarist Crook Kid Coathanger (Julia Kugel) says of their songwriting strategy. It’s a duality immediately apparent with the album opener “Follow Me”. It’s a classic Coathangers tune with the raspy vocals of Rusty Coathanger (Stephanie Luke) belted out over the signature grimy rock laid down by Crook Kid and bassist Minnie Coathanger (Meredith Franco). But the chorus opens into one of the most accessible hooks in the band’s canon, just before segueing into the next verse with a squall of violent dissonant guitar. From there the band launches into “Shut Up”, a title that harkens back to the brash sass of their first record. The song still has its spikey guitar riffs and shouted chorus, but here The Coathangers sound less like a jubilant version of Huggy Bear and more like the art-pop of late-era Minutemen. Dedicated Coathangers fans will recognize the re-worked versions of “Merry Go Round”, “Smother”, “Adderall”, and “Derek’s Song” from their run of limited edition split 7”s, and hearing them in the context of the album shows that these tracks weren’t merely isolated examples of the band’s more sophisticated side, but were actually demonstrative of the group’s increasing capacity for nestling solid melodic hooks and rock heft into their repertoire. By the time the band wraps up the album with the humble pop perfection of “Drive”, it’s hard to believe this was the band that garnered their reputation with raucous bombasts like “Don’t Touch My Shit”.
“Ultimately, every album is a snapshot of who we were at the time,” says Crook Kid. And while that might mean that The Coathangers in 2014 don’t feel compelled to chronicle the youthful piss and vinegar that yielded the Teenage Jesus & The Jerks-esque spasms of their debut album, it’s exciting to hear the output of the band as they explore the range of their temperaments with a broader musical palette at their disposal. Suck My Shirt is available on LP, CD, and digital formats on March 18th 2014 via Suicide Squeeze Records.

The Sawyer Family

"Stoner Americana Thunder... like Slim Cessnas Auto club formed a side project that was part Black Flag part Black Sabbath.."

Drawing inspiration from the gloomy climate of the Pacific Northwest, The Sawyer Family are, at once, steeped in mythology and darkness, and eerily real. Originally formed in 2001 in Eugene, Oregon, the band has continuously evolved in the decade since, writing darker, heavier material, but still retaining the flairs of melody and harmony their fans came to expect from them. Their first release, the "Scary as Hell" EP, dropped them squarely into the roots rock scene of the Northwest. This batch of songs, along with their full length follow-up, "The Sawyer Family Album," solidified their reputation as purveyors of swampy, creepy rock and roll and got them gigs with bands such as The Red Elvises, The KoffinKats, The Blasters, and Dick Dale. Still confined primarily to the West Coast, they continued writing, putting more and more distance between the rootsy sound of their beginnings and their new direction of melodic metal with a dark tinge of humor.

The release of their second full length album, "Why Did God Create The Sawyer Family," brought them critical acclaim as well as a demand to venture further into the country. They began working relentlessly, setting up tours and writing the next album. Their energetic live show, along with constant new material, made almost every show different, and it wasn't long before they were ready to record the next album, "The Burning Times." With this release, they began to show their refined dark side.

Sometimes slow, sometimes blindingly fast, but always melodic and orchestrated, "The Burning Times" set The Sawyer Family apart from their past as a straightforward rock group. They soon sold about 2000 hard copies and countless digital downloads while independently traveling around the country, appealing to punk rock, metal, and roots rock fans alike. It was not long before they had visited nearly every state playing over 400 shows since 2009, from dive bars to festivals. As they have refined their ever evolving, sometimes unpredictable, songwriting, they've left a burgeoning fanbase wanting more all around the United States. The music is sometimes compared to Queens of the Stone Age, Mr. Bungle, early Metallica, and Corrosion of Conformity and, while these are all influences, there is still great variety in the songwriting with nods to fifties doo-wop, surf, and early punk rock. In many ways, their fearless songwriting and refusal to be pigeon-holed in one genre has become the Sawyer Family's trademark and what their fans have come to expect from a show, whether they are sharing the stage with Mondo Generator or The Cherry Poppin' Daddies one night, to The Goddamn Gallows and Joe Buck the next. The sure thing, however, is their vintage feel in today's era of electronic music; drums, guitars, and bass.

COEDS

COEDS is a rock n' roll quartet from Savannah, GA. COEDS fuses the hooks that defined early rock n' roll and doo-wop with power-pop sensibilities, vocals that coo, spit and wail, dirty,
driving guitars and raucous rhythms guaranteed to get you dancing. Comprised of members of Whaleboat, Lovely Locks, and An Albatross, COEDS snuck a handle of whiskey into the sock
hop and invites everyone to share it.